Teaching Portfolios (and Website Builders)

Rachel emailed me a few days ago to ask if I knew of any good resources for making teaching portfolios online. I didn't, but I did some research to see what's out there. While there really doesn't seem to be any vendors offering a website/ePortfolio builder specifically for teachers, I found some other tools that could be modified for the purposes of a teaching portfolio.

First, here's an example of a teaching portfolio combined with an art portfolio. Basia is an SAIC ArtEd Alum.

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General Resources on Teaching Portfolios:

http://www.uwstout.edu/art/artedportfolios/
This site offers strategies and content suggestions. But NO online builder!

http://www.viu.ca/teaching/TeachingwithTechnology-ePortfolios.asp
This site also offers an good overview and content suggestions. I think some of its planning tools and templates (even for just PowerPoint) could be quite useful. But NO online builder!

http://teachingandlearningissues.ucalgaryblogs.ca/2009/10/02/creating-an-eportfolio/
This site has a video of a guy describing the use of Wordpress for a teaching portfolio. It's a bit long and gets somewhat technical, but I like the idea of modifying another tool (in this case a blog platform) for the purpose of an ePortfolio. And Wordpress is FREE!

http://sites.google.com/site/eportfolioapps/overview
Here's an intense overview of ePortfolios using Google sites. Again, I like the concept of appropriating the Google Sites tool for another purpose. I don't find Google Sites to be the most beautiful sites in the world, but they're pretty user friendly.

Website Tools We Can Appropriate for Making Teaching Portfolios

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The first place I looked for a list of website building resources was on Mashable (see earlier post about all its glory). I found an article called Web Design Toolbox: 50+ Tools for Web Design. This is a great list to refer to for any number of website projects, so check it out.

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I also found this list of 130+ Web Design Tools, with even more resources for not only web builders, but also code resources and graphic/page element/design tools. Check out the first section on Beginner Resources in particular for some free website builders.

These are the website builders from the Mashable lists that I think have some potential (I tried to pull out the vendors that were free or offered free options):

• Weebly - I've used this before and it's VERY easy. I definitely recommend this one.
  
  Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!
• Weebly for Education - looks like they also have a education version of their product, though it appears to be geared more for classroom use than for teaching portfolios per se. It would be interesting to see how it could be manipulated for our purposes.
• Webs - free! looks pretty, but haven't personally tried this one.
• Doodlekit - offers a free option, but hard to say if it really offers enough. Check it out.
• Viviti - again, has a free option, but that might not be robust enough for what you'd need. Next level is only $5/month though - not so bad.
• Jimdo - again, free version might not be enough, but next levels are only $5 and $10/month. Worth exploring.

And here are a few others:

• Other People's Pixels - it's not free, but it's reasonable. It's geared towards artists' ePortfolios, but this is what Basia (above) used for her combined art/teaching portfolio. We also used this for the Chicago Artists Month website; while I didn't work on the back end, I heard that the templates were somewhat limiting (little ability to customize).
• Wordpress - mentioned above. There's the hosted blog option, but they also have a downloadable publishing platform where you need your own host. Wordpress is known for being of high quality, offers lots of customizing options, but can also be a little complicated if you don't have any html knowledge. You don't have to write code from scratch, but it helps if you know enough to be able to modify code here and there.
• Google Sites - also mentioned above. If you have a gmail account, you could start making a google site right now. It's fairly easy, but limited its customizing options.
• Webnode - this one was recommended by Craig Roland on his Art Teacher's Guide to the Internet blog.
  

I hope this helps get you started with some resources and tools for building a teaching portfolio. It would be interesting to talk about how the teaching portfolio of an MAAE might look different from that of an MAT (how does working in a museum, art center, nonprofit, etc. change how we present ourselves from if we were working in a school?).